Gael Luna
International District Sign
During the New Iconic Signs Design Charrette we discuss the history and stories of the iconic signs of Albuquerque, NM. I was inspired to create a design about the need to healthcare access. The front design is of a butterfly, representing the immigrant, refugee, and asylum community that live in the International District. Inside the butterfly, there’s different elements of healthcare including water, food, medicine, sage, and earth. Under the design, I included the message, “ Healthcare For All!” The back design is about gender affirming care. I designed a shirtless person, showing off their top surgery scars and drains. I wanted to create a design to uplift trans people and their need to access healthcare. Under the design, I included a message, “gender affirming care saves lives.”
Aiko Jio
International District Sign
Señora was composed in Spring 2024 as a contribution to “New Iconic Signs” by Friends of the Orphan Signs and Risolana. The work was designed to function on a place-specific psychogeography within the International District depicting La Virgen de Guadalupe presiding over a marigold & sunflower garden.
Among the oldest communities in the city, the locality of Central and Louisiana is not only a transit hub but a nexus of Albuquerque’s socioeconomic underpinnings as a military-industrial stronghold. Señora confronts this systemic dissonance with color and imagery that re-emphasizes an interconnected web of living meaning, presenting a figure of universal compassion in hues that meld seamlessly with the timeless New Mexico sunset.
Señora combines illustration, iterative geometric software, graphic distortion, and procedural processing to tie together disparate influences and signifiers across four panels. The raw emotional energy of the piece is the most important factor which all other details are meant to support